Betty Friedan

In The Feminine Mystique Friedan wrote, “…scientists noted that America’s greatest source of unused brain-power was women. But girls would not study physics: it was ‘unfeminine’” (Charters, p.496) The book gave a platform for women and encouraged women to work for social and political change. Friedan also claimed “It was no long possible to ignore that voice to dismiss the desperation of so many American women…

What is the "problem with no name" as described by Betty Friedan? How did people in the 50s and 60s try to downplay or trivialize this problem? How does this relate to the cult of domesticity? "The problem with no name" referes to a widescale mental health crisis in the United States in the 1950s and 60s. Many women had chosen to get married and start a family at a very young age, as early as 17 years old. These women had become the perfect models for feminine domesticity. Staying at home and…

The Feminine Mystique is a novel written by Betty Friedan analyzing the sadness and depression many American women felt during the 1950’s. Friedan’s research describes the subservient conditions women experienced and labels their mutual disappointment as “the problem with no name.”1 Friedan defines feminine mystique as women’s limited potential through society’s idealized image of the housewife occupation. Linking the unhappiness and emptiness women felt to both social and internal conflict…

In my last paper I talked about the role of visual media, particularly photographs, in social movements. I wanted to stay along this theme of media, but a different subunit this time. Media as a whole interests me, from videos, to photographs, blogs etc. Books, though, are not often considered media. Upon inspection, however, in the past they have had as much effect, if not more, as other media forms. Mass marketed books have the ability to prompt critical thinking, by questioning norms and what…

Throughout history, society has shaped the lives of individuals by assigning individuals a specific way to be a part of society while deviation is most likely viewed as unacceptable and censured. Betty Friedan in chapter 1 of her novel “The Feminine Mystique” describes society’s assigned role for women and how women sacrificed their desires to fulfil this role and assimilate into society. E.J Graff in his essay “The M/F Boxes” describes how transgendered and intersex individuals suffer…

The women’s movement goes so much further than treating a female as though she is no longer just a figment of someone’s sexual representation of her in one’s brain. To get to the point where we are in modern society has been a struggle. A struggle that so many strong men and women have worked towards; some never even getting the chance to see the fruit that had grown from the tree that they had planted. In present day, the definition of a women varies depending on who you talk to and what…

women wanted. As the women began to return to the home, they began to feel unfulfilled. Now that they had realized their potential in the working world, it was hard for them to return housewifery and home life. The book the “Feminist Mystique” by Betty Friedan, detailed the struggle that young women faced as they were again told to go back to the lifestyle of pre-World War II women. The young women were “taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who wanted to be poets or physicists…

women the right to vote. From 1920 to the Sixties, even to the present day, women have continuously fought for gender equality. For example, The Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan, is about how women are dissatisfied with their lives due to their dependence on their husbands for financial, emotional, and intellectual support.1 Friedan is making the point that because of gender inequality in America, women are…

to take over the jobs in construction and manufacturing. However, when the men came back women were fired instantly to give those jobs back to their male counterparts. This lead to a woman’s place being considered the home instead a work force. Betty Friedan, author of the “Feminine Mystique,” believed woman wanted and needed more out of life, which is accurate; life can’t be fulfilling if society tells you your ambition is cooking, cleaning, and caring for…

with their lessened involvement in the workforce, unified women and motivated them to fight back against this consistent discrimination. The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1963 publicly voiced “…how educated, middle-class women felt isolated and useless in the ‘comfortable concentration camp’ of the suburban house.” Friedan also helped found the National Organization for Women in 1966, which continued the fight for women’s equality in the workplace when came to being…